


Not What I Meant

by Stariceling



Category: Toriko (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Injury, Kissing, M/M, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-22
Updated: 2016-07-22
Packaged: 2018-07-25 22:51:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7550326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stariceling/pseuds/Stariceling
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sunny calls Coco gross one too many times. Somehow it seems very difficult to just apologize, let alone say he finds Coco the opposite of gross.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not What I Meant

**Author's Note:**

> For 0blue-bird0 from the kiss writing meme!  
> 23: Kiss and make up
> 
> I need to write more Sunny POV

Their current falling out was at least half Coco’s fault. Sunny was quite firmly convinced of that fact. Did Coco need to go and get himself stung by the marvelous lobster scorpion they were hunting? Did he need to scare the life out of Sunny just to collect some venom? No, he did not. He could have at least waited until Sunny got the stinger off.

Fear and anger aside, Sunny realized that he might have reacted badly. No matter how much he hated watching muscles in Coco’s back spasm in the time to took for him to produce the necessary antibodies, his reaction when Coco offered to share those antibodies as a personalized antivenom was unkind.

He had needed it. His arm had been throbbing with pain, the muscles numb and useless under burning skin. It was still stiff from damage the venom had left, even with Coco’s help, although that would heal soon. He probably shouldn’t have called Coco gross quite so many times. Or said any of the other things he’d said.

Any other time this would have been the most beautiful dinner. They had chosen a hot spring to boil their catch and found butter-cone pines growing nearby. While they waited they had a view of pools in a rainbow of colors, some edged with lacy formations of salt. The sky was attempting to out-dazzle the pools with rich sunset colors and cotton-candy clouds.

As for company, Sunny had someone who could–miracle of miracles–eat without scattering shell across the entire plateau like shrapnel.

That did sell Coco unforgivably short. He was handsome, poised, equally good company when he made conversation or chose to keep a calm silence. He was a perfect dinner companion.

Even if he did insist on sitting silently on the far side of the pool from Sunny.

It had been wrong of him to say anything about Coco’s poison. He trusted Coco with his life and more. Even if there wasn’t a good way to inject the antibodies. Even if it had involved Coco’s mouth on his arm.

Surely he was entitled at least one, ‘gross!’ for that.

He should apologize. Coco was apparently hurt enough to be avoiding him.

He didn’t want to. Why should he have to, just because he’d had the last word in their argument? It felt like he always apologized first, or if Coco did then he was left waiting until his annoyance burned out. Like Coco could always predict exactly the right time. He probably used his fortune telling, which was cheating!

Sunny knew he should be the mature one, walk over there with perfect poise and confidence, and set things straight again.

If he did that would Coco know why he was upset in the first place? Sunny found he didn’t want to say. It was unsightly to admit he was afraid when it was nothing. Coco was obviously fine. No, he had to go through all of that and then be cool as ever.

Sunny wasn’t all that eager to eat a scorpion in the first place, even one with ‘marvelous’ in the name. He didn’t like them, and today he had discovered he liked them significantly less at this size. Something about the jointed exoskeleton, or all those legs, or the stinging tail.

And he wouldn’t even be able to enjoy it if his brain was struggling with other problems. It was completely unbeautiful to be so preoccupied during a meal. What would Coco think? Nothing, because he didn’t want to be anywhere near Sunny, apparently.

Which was in fact Sunny’s fault if he thought about it.

While he was ruining the atmosphere, Coco came around the pool to where he was sitting. He went down on one knee and made a request. “Will you look at the sting on my back for me?”

Sunny didn’t need to look with his eyes and he didn’t want to. He could feel the dimensions of the sting, surprisingly deep in Coco’s back. It would heal as soon as his gourmet cells were activated. Sunny spared the second’s effort to stitch it closed anyway. He wouldn’t worry about infection, Coco’s immune system would have already handled that. He simply joined the skin together neatly so it would heal with no scar.

“I shouldn’t have been so reckless.”

It was an apology and they both knew it, even if it was phrased neatly enough to save embarrassment.

The problem wasn’t the recklessness, exactly. He’d watched Coco (and almost everybody else he cared about) do more dangerous things. He’d done them himself without a second thought. He blamed the scorpion. It was something to do with those giant claws framing Coco, the arch of that tail, the sound when it hit, the ground cracking under Coco’s feet with the impact. And Coco had all but erased his intimidation or it wouldn’t have stung him in the first place. Coco wasn’t meant to seem small beside even the most monstrous scorpion.

Which obviously meant it was the scorpion that was gross, and not Coco.

Coco was getting up, probably to sit a more normal distance from him, and Sunny panicked.

“Did your fortune telling tell you I wasn’t going to apologize? Because I was!”

“No, I could see you were unsatisfied. I didn’t want to ruin the atmosphere at dinner.”

There he went being so calm and reasonable Sunny couldn’t fight against it. There were moments when Coco’s bluntness felt like a brick wall. Today Sunny threw himself against it.

“I was wrong. You’re not gross.”

Coco’s smile was warm and mild, as if the apology was a polite little kindness.

Sunny jumped to his feet as if he had been stung. “I was wrong! Isn’t that what you wanted to hear?” It was what he’d wanted to _say_ for an hour, it seemed unfair if Coco didn’t want to hear it. “You’re not gross! You’re not creepy! There’s no part of you that’s disgusting!”

Of course Coco knew that, his smile said as much. That should have made it less difficult to get through, not more.

“I’m serious.” Sunny braced him hands on Coco’s shoulders, leaned close, and gave him a peck on the mouth. Because he knew that could be dangerous and he also knew it wasn’t. Not because he’d wanted to.

Coco’s hands gripped his shoulders hard. His expression darkened.

“I said I was serious.”

Sunny abruptly realized his face was burning hot. Of all the ungraceful, uncool things he could do right now it would have to be blushing.

Before he could do anything about it, Coco had kissed him back. He lingered longer, giving Sunny time to appreciate how it felt to have dry lips against his.

If that was what they were doing now it was certainly easier than talking. Sunny leaned into Coco to show his approval and he could swear he felt a hiccup in the movement of Coco’s lips against his. Had he just smiled?

Sunny braced one hand on the back of Coco’s head and kissed him more aggressively, wanting a turn being in charge again. Coco humored him. He even swallowed and parted his lips to go along with Sunny’s demands.

Coco’s hand was cradling the back of his neck, and he wasn’t getting his hand back any time soon. It was his own fault for slipping his hand right through Sunny’s hair.

Sunny had stopped thinking beyond Coco’s hands and Coco’s lips and the faint wetness of Coco’s mouth open against his, but he wasn’t so far gone as to notice a new taste. Not something either of them had eaten today, not bitter like poison. The only thing he could think of was the way Coco’s skin ‘tasted’ to his feelers, but more immediate.

He was enjoying it very much right up until he realized that if he could taste Coco, the reverse was probably also true.

Sunny jerked back as far as he could and put his hands over his face, absolutely mortified.

“I take it back. You’re more gross than anyone on this planet!”

‘Gross’ in the words of a thirteen-year-old Sunny who didn’t know how to deal with a crush. He still didn’t. The pressure against the walls of his chest and the way his heart jumped made him feel out of control. He was unpoised, ungraceful. In contrast Coco could choose odd moments to be so cool it felt like a competition. It felt like he was losing. He wanted to look good around Coco and he managed to look good most of the time so why was this so hard?

Coco was smiling at him, he knew it. He could almost see it, mild and amused and knowing that he didn’t mean it for a second.

“Will you still eat dinner with me?”

“‘F course,” Sunny answered, but he didn’t take his hands away from his face until he knew Coco had turned around.

The sunset had already dimmed to twilight. Some of the pools around them were starting to light up with sparks of bioluminesce that would compete with the stars. Their chosen spot would be more beautiful than a traditional candlelight dinner in the highest class restaurant.

As for company, Sunny had someone very precious to him.

When he moved to help Coco remove the scorpion and get ready to eat it, he noticed that his arm seemed to have abruptly healed itself. He decided not to think too hard about what had triggered that.

Even if Coco knew he didn’t mean it, Sunny considered the possibility of apologizing for his second outburst a little later in the evening. Maybe this time it would go a little more smoothly.

Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to give Coco another make up kiss.


End file.
